Megliola: Louisville's Pitino, Kentucky's Calipari cross paths again

Rick Pitino and John Calipari just can't seem to get out of each other's way.

Both began making their bones around here. Pitino left small-time hoops school Boston University for big-time Providence, taking the Friars to the Final Four. Calipari lifted obscure UMass (where Pitino played) to a Final Four.

Pitino won a national championship at Kentucky. So did Calipari. Pitino won a second national title at Louisville. Calipari has a chance to win his second national championship, but he'll have to go through Pitino's Louisville team first. They meet up in the Sweet 16 Friday in Indianapolis.

Sometimes you can't tell one from the other. Oh, did I mention they're both Italian?

Pitino used to live in Sherborn when he coached the Celtics. That was not a good time in Pitino's life. Calipari used to coach the New Jersey Nets. That was not a good time in his life.

Both learned they were better off coaching college kids than spoiled multi-millionaire pros. Both are pieces of work on the sidelines, Pitino in his (presumed) Italian $2,000 suits, as flamboyant as a matador in his sequined outfit; Calipari, slowed by hip replacements, isn't as peripatetic as Pitino, as he exhorts his players — and the refs — from in front of the bench.

On Dec. 28 the Wildcats beat the Cardinals in Lexington 73-66, but that means nothing now. It's Pitino 2, Calipari 1 in their three tournament meetings. That also means nothing now. Friday may just be a Sweet 16 game to the rest of the world; to Kentuckians it's more than that. It's a state title game. In Kentucky it's about basketball 364 days a year. One day a year they stop to take a deep breath. Derby Day.

Pitino has pulled off an extraordinary feat, first taking the Wildcats, then the Cardinals, to the championship. You'd think Eastern or Western Kentucky would make him an offer he can't refuse.

Pitino's been on a roll. He was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame last year, the phone call coming just hours before Louisville went out and beat Michigan in the national title game. When Pitino got the hall call, he was getting a text that said "go gophers. got the job." It was from his son Richard, who'd just be hired as Minnesota's head coach. Richard is a clone of his dad on the sideline. It's almost eerie. Richard played at St. Sebastian's in Needham and was his dad's assistant for a few years.

Pitino, six years older than Calipari, is the only coach to take three teams to the Final Four and the only one to win a national title at different schools. He's in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Calipari can start writing his Hall of Fame speech any time now.

Page 2 of 2 - Before you're big in coaching, you're little.

A Calipari story. Not long after he took over at UMass, which was sort of a backwater, dead zone place to coach, he'd go anywhere to sell his team, even a tiny cable TV show in Worcester where I was on this particular day. His segment was due to start soon, but he hadn't showed up yet. He called, saying he was lost. I gave him directions. He wasn't that far away from the Quinsigamond St. studio

Soon as he sat down Calipari took over the show, his theme being you may not know us now, but just wait. UMass was going to be heard from.

One night, after UMass beat Holy Cross at the Hart Center, the Globe's Bob Ryan and I met up with Calipari. He didn't really want to talk about the win. He simply implored us to get the word out. Come to Amherst and we'll put on a show for ya. The Globe wound up assigning Joe Burris, who lived in Framingham, to cover UMass full-time.

A Pitino story. After a game when he was at BU, he was peeved that his team hadn't caught on with fans or the media. Couldn't we see, he reminded us, that his team played an exciting, up tempo style? He was right about that. So where were the fans? I was tempted to say "buying tickets for the hockey games."

No hockey at Louisville or Kentucky. Pitino vs. Calipari running for governor of the state would be interesting, but not as much fun as watching them coach. And, coach against each other in the state championship game, even better.